ICICI Prudential reports three-fold jump in Q4FY22 net profit

 The company recorded a 33 percent year-on-year growth in the Value of New Business (VNB) for FY2022.

The VNB margin, a measure of profitability, expanded to 28 percent and absolute VNB stood at Rs 21.63 billion, according to a company release.

This was led by a robust growth of 25 percent in new business sum assured and 20 percent in Annualised Premium Equivalent for the same period, the company said.

During FY2022, annuity and protection new business premiums grew by 29 percent and 35 percent year-on-year respectively. Given that both these segments are significantly under penetrated, they offer tremendous opportunity for growth.

New Business Sum Assured of the company grew to Rs 7,731.46 billion for FY2022 making ICICI Prudential Life Insurance the leader in the private sector.

A combination of factors such as innovative products coupled with deep and wide distribution network have helped the company to maintain its position as the market leader in New Business Sum Assured.

The Company’s 13th month persistency ratio improved to 85.7 percent for FY2022, up from 84.8 percent for FY2021, indicative of the quality of business being underwritten. Assets under Management stood at Rs 2,404.92 billion at March 31, 2022. 

This is an outcome of the trust reposed in the company by customers, growth in new business, strong persistency and robust fund management. The solvency ratio for FY2022 stood at 204.5 percent, well above the regulatory requirement of 150 percent.

Despite concerns and challenges posed by the onset of the Omicron variant, the Company’s robust technology backbone has enabled continuity in operations, be it onboarding new customers or delivering superior service.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance MD & CEO N S Kannan said, “Despite the disruptions caused by the third wave of COVID-19, which impacted productivity in January and February, we were able to demonstrate resilience in our operations. In March, we posted the best ever monthly sales by the company in any year since inception. This helped grow our VNB by 33 percent year-on-year to ` 21.63 billion for FY2022 with a robust VNB margin of 28.0 percent."

The company innovated across product categories with two new funds, Balanced Advantage Fund & Sustainable Equity Fund for our unit linked customers, two new products for customers seeking a regular income, and the return on premium variant of our retail protection product.

The contribution of these innovative offerings was more than 25 percent of the APE in FY2022, Kannan said.

"The strong performance was driven in equal measure by over 100 valuable partnerships forged this year. In the agency channel, we added almost 25,000 agents through the year. This enabled us to support our strategy of deepening and widening distribution," he said.

The insurer's revamped customer app has crossed the milestone of 1 million downloads and is one of the best rated in the industry.

"Today one out of every four service transactions is carried out on our mobile app," the company said in a press release.

Further, I am happy to report that this year is the first year of profitability for our wholly owned subsidiary, ICICI Prudential Pension Fund Management company Limited, Kannan said.